Last Friday, during an appearance in Martinsburg, West Virginia, our brain-wormed Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. ridiculed the state’s Gov. Patrick Morrisey's weight, making derogatory comments and suggesting public weigh-ins. He quipped, "You look like you ate Governor Morrisey," and proposed becoming Morrisey's personal trainer to enforce a strict diet. He also advised him to go on a carnivorous diet.
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Where do we start? Because in a week, Kennedy is under fire from Congress, Wall Street, and myriad health professionals. In other words, another par-for-the-course week for RFK Jr.
His remarks are not just unprofessional, they are also deeply harmful, especially considering that West Virginia consistently ranks among the worst states for obesity and related health issues. West Virginia has one of the highest adult obesity rates in the nation, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, contributing to elevated incidence of diabetes, heart disease, and other chronic conditions.
Kennedy's mockery not only belittles these serious health challenges but also undermines efforts to address them through supportive and constructive public health strategies. And can we just say, they are so out of the realm, so bizarre, and downright cruel and insensitive, which metaphorically can also describe Kennedy’s tenure so far as HHS secretary.
As if Kennedy’s warped sense of reality and bizarre agenda aren’t enough to keep you up at night, his decision to lay off approximately 10,000 HHS employees as part of a purported restructuring effort should keep you up for weeks on end.
These layoffs will affect critical agencies responsible for research, disease tracking, and food regulation. The Food and Drug Administration and the CDC have both experienced significant staff reductions, raising alarms about their capacity to safeguard public health.
The timing of these layoffs is particularly troubling, coinciding with rising measles cases and ongoing vaccine skepticism. He’s getting grilled for how he’s handling the measles, and it got so bad internally that the HHS longtime spokesperson resigned in protest.
Further, the departure of experienced personnel from these agencies threatens to impede responses to health crises and undermines decades of progress in public health infrastructure. During the campaign, Donald Trump said that he’d let Kennedy “go wild on health” at HHS, and so far, Kennedy has not disappointed.
Except all that wild behavior has wildly bad consequences.
Kennedy's actions have not gone unnoticed by the financial sector. This week, Wall Street analysts from Cantor Fitzgerald called for his removal, citing his anti-science stance and libertarian agenda as detrimental to public health. “We call on the administration to re-evaluate RFK Jr’s role at HHS. Pushing out one of the most trusted leaders of the FDA to promote an anti-science agenda is a step too far for us,” analysts Josh Schimmer and Eric Schmidt wrote in an unusual note to clients Tuesday. “HHS cannot be led by an anti-vax, conspiracy theorist with inadequate training.”
The pushing out they were referring to was the resignation of Dr. Peter Marks, the FDA's top vaccine official, last week due to conflicts with Kennedy. Wall Street is reacting to Kennedy ibecause Marks's departure has negatively impacted vaccine-related stocks, introducing uncertainty into the biotech industry and highlighting the far-reaching consequences of Kennedy's misguided leadership.
Moreover, Kennedy's management of the bird flu outbreak has drawn scrutiny from House Democrats, who on Tuesday launched an investigation into his decision to oppose a poultry vaccine. Health experts warn that allowing the virus to spread naturally to identify resistant chickens could lead to dangerous mutations and potentially a human pandemic. This approach not only endangers animal populations but also poses a significant risk to human health, reflecting a reckless disregard for established scientific protocols.
Kennedy's appointment of a vaccine skeptic as one of his top aides who previously has written extensively that vaccines cause autism — this is blatantly false — just adds to the horror of letting Kennedy “go wild on health.”
Kennedy has also overseen cuts to research grants for vaccines further demonstrate his commitment to an anti-vaccine agenda. These actions have alarmed public health officials and medical professionals who understand the critical role vaccines play in preventing disease outbreaks.
And the wildness continues. Kennedy’s canceling of vaccine advisory meetings and the suspension of grants jeopardize ongoing research and the development of new vaccines, leaving the population vulnerable to preventable diseases.
Last month, I spoke to Dr. Michael Osterholm, a health adviser to President Biden, who voiced concerns about the direction of public health under Kennedy's leadership. Osterholm highlighted the canceled vaccine advisory meeting and delayed response to measles outbreaks as indicators of a troubling shift away from science-based decision-making.
He warned that such disruptions could have severe implications for the nation's ability to respond to public health emergencies. Ominously, he told me that instead of sleeping with one eye open worrying about public health under Kennedy, he sleeps with three eyes open.
The cumulative effect of Kennedy's actions suggests that we are only witnessing the beginning of the damage he is capable of inflicting on U.S. health. His erratic behavior, including the bizarre incident involving a deceased bear in Central Park and reports of a brain worm affecting his cognitive functions, raises serious questions about his fitness for office — and his fitness for being a normal human being.
All of his actions thus far, coupled with his policy decisions, indicate a trajectory that will likely lead to further cuts to essential health research funding and the dismantling of vital health agencies. The inevitable consequence is a decline in public health outcomes, increased vulnerability to disease outbreaks, and a loss of public trust in health institutions.
Returning to the incident with Gov. Morrisey, Kennedy's fat-shaming is emblematic of his overall approach: one that is cruel, callous, and devoid of the empathy and professionalism required of a public health leader. Instead of fostering collaborative efforts to tackle the nation's health challenges, he chooses to demean individuals and dismantle institutions.
In other words, despite the ineptitude and danger of Signalgate, RFK Jr. might be Trump’s most dangerous and damaging Cabinet officer.
